era

The second largest of the time divisions used in geology, each being divided into a number of periods.

Era is a word used in English since 1615, derived from Late Latin æra, era "an era or epoch from which time is reckoned," probably identical to Latin æra "counters used for calculation," plural of æs "brass, money". The Spanish era is calculated from 38 BC, perhaps because of a tax (cfr.

Like epoch, "era" in English it originally meant "the starting point of an age;" the meaning "system of chronological notation" is c.1646;

The word era also denotes the units used under a different, more arbitrary system where time is not represented as an endless continuum with a single reference year, but each unit starts counting from one again, as if time starts again.

In East Asia, each emperor's reign may be subdivided into several reign periods, each being treated as a new era. Different East Asian countries utilized slightly different systems, notably:

Chinese Eras Japanese Eras Korean Eras Vietnamese Eras

A similar practice survived in the United Kingdom until quite recently, but only for formal official writings: in daily life the ordinary year A.D.

In common speech and various contexts, the term era is also used, by extension, for any (as a rule relatively long) period in history with a name, often relating to common characteristic(s), even if this is not the normal way to organize time. The most relevant type are politic periods, for example: the Roman era, the Elizabethan era, the Victorian era (dynastic criteria, only formally correct within the British realm/empire/Commonwealth) and the Soviet era, or comparable literary notions like the Biblical era.

The word Era is also popularly used to denote the passing of — often shorter — periods that are only defined in terms of a specific discipline of sphere of life, such as the prominence of an artistic style, or more specifically in music, see musical eras, described in History of music, such as the Big Band era, Disco era.

In natural science, there is need for another time perspective, independent from human activity, and indeed spanning a far longer period (mainly prehistoric), as in Geology where era refers to four well defined time spans covering the entire existence of the planet Earth: from oldest to youngest, these are the Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras, each subdivided in shorter periods;

In astronomy the periods are even longer, to cover the entire existence of the universe (in the order of 13.7 billion years), but usually just denoted in numerical units, as there is no significant link to any earthly reality, our planet being astronomically insignificant (except as the only known observation point).